On Monday I read email from a teenager asking
if she could work for ArmeniaNow to earn $500.
It is the amount her school is demanding she pay
in bribes for her diploma if she wants top grades.
Any lesser amount and she won't receive '5s',
no matter how well she performs on exams. She
is an honor (an ironic description, yes?) student,
smart enough that she won a scholarship to study
in the United States.

Her parents can't afford the payment, because
her brother has been conscripted into the army,
and the family is spending its money on bribes
to officers so that he won't be sent to Karabakh.

On Tuesday I saw a man in front of our newsroom
eating out of a public garbage barrel. Not just
scavenging, but literally eating the scraps of
food he found.

On Thursday a woman brought a little girl into
my office. She said the girl was her granddaughter,
whose mother is in hospital with tuberculosis
and the family has no money. Could I buy food
for her?

On Friday I read the Radio Free Europe story
in today's ArmeniaNow, stating that half of the
newly elected Parliament members are among the
most wealthy citizens of Armenia, therefore the
most powerful.

It would be unfair to suggest that Monday, Tuesday
and Thursday are somehow connected to Friday.
But what's fair got to do with anything?

Compared to the past presidential elections, the OSCE and
other foreign observers said last Sunday's parliamentary election
in places like Polling Station No. 0384 showed signs of cleaning
up the messy voting system in Armenia.